Swarm is just one part of Foursquare's future plans but the original app, which first launched in 2009, won't be going anywhere.

"In the near future, the Foursquare app is also going to go through a metamorphosis," Foursqure said in a blog post announcing Swarm. The company hasn't revealed much about what that metamorphosis will look like, so for now we have to rely on Swarm for clues. Here are our first impressions:

Check-ins: familiar but different

Foursquare has moved the "checking in" experience to Swarm (for now, you can still check in with the Foursquare app, but check ins will eventually migrate once the full update is realized). Its made a couple of significant changes in doing so, though the experience doesn't feel completely alien. The mechanics of the check-in are much the same — tap on the familiar place pin icon to start a new check in — but with one big difference.

Rather than bringing up a menu with a list of nearby locations to choose from, the app defaults to the nearest location. Tapping "change location" brings up the menu of all the nearby locations and the search function.

After setting your location, you can add a photo or message to your check-in, as with the original app.

Automatically guessing where you're checking in may be a convenient time-saver in some areas but can also prove annoying, particularly if you're in a dense area where there may be dozens of locations in a single building or if you tend to forget to check in at a place until a few minutes after you leave.

When you open the app you are greeted with a feed that breaks down where your friends are by how close they are to you. Interestingly, Foursquare has added the ability to call or text message friends from within the app. Tap a friend's avatar in your feed and an option to call or text appear.

What happened to the "game" of Foursquare?

Foursquare is either changing or eliminating many of the competitive features longtime users are used to, including mayorships, badges and the leaderboard — what Foursquare refers to as the "game mechanics" of the app.

In Swarm, Foursquare is opting for stickers over badges. When you check in you have the option of adding a sticker, similar to an emoji, to your avatar for the check-in. Swarm comes preloaded with 10 stickers, but the company says users will be able to unlock more stickers as they check in at more places, similar to the way badges worked in the original app. Users will still be able to see all the badges they previously earned in their "trophy case" in the Foursquare app, they just won't be able to earn any new ones once that app makes the switch.

Mayorships, one of the features that Foursquare first became known for, have also been reimagined. Now, rather than competing with all of Foursquare's 50 million users for a single mayorship, users only compete within their friend groups. For the first time, a single location will be able to have multiple mayors.

Additionally, check ns are no longer awarded points and there is no leaderboard where you can compare your score to those of your friends.

New ways to share: plans and neighborhood sharing

Foursquare rolled out two new social features with Swarm — Plans and neighborhood sharing — both of which are aimed at helping users arrange impromptu meet-ups with nearby friends.

With plans, which has been given its own section in Swarm, users can post messages and last minute invitations and the note will get sent to their friends who are in the same area. Neighborhood sharing is more passive; when the setting is enabled (by swiping right across your avatar on the top of the app), your friends can see whenever you happen to be in the same neighborhood.

Two Foursquares, one experience?

As Foursquare continues to "fiddle with the knobs," it will be interesting to see how the two apps will finally end up working together. As it stands now, those used to a unified Foursquare experience will likely find the experience a little disjointed.

Doing away with leaderboards and badges is one thing, but forcing you to use two different apps to get the same experience you used to get in one app just doesn't make sense.

Tips left by other users can only be viewed int he original Foursquare app, even if you checked in with Swarm.

Say you check in on Swarm, for example, and want to see tips from other users. Since tips only live in the original Foursquare app, you are prompted to open Foursquare and redirected to the original app.

While we won't be able to fully judge Swarm until we see the new Foursquare experience, as it stands now, Swarm feels like it's still trying to find its identity.

Swarm is available for iOS and Android, and the company says a Windows Phone version is in the works.

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